1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for driving a gas-discharge panel such as a plasma display panel (PDP) or a plasma addressed liquid crystal (PALC), and a display device using the gas-discharge panel.
A plasma display panel is coming into wide use as a large screen display device for a television set taking advantage of commercialization of color display. Along with the expansion of the market, requirement for reliability of operation has become more rigorous.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As a color display device, an AC type plasma display panel having three-electrode surface discharging structure is commercialized. This device has a pair of main electrodes for sustaining discharge disposed for each row of matrix display, and an address electrode for each column. Diaphragms for suppressing discharge interference between cells are disposed like a stripe. A discharge space is continuous over the entire length of each column. This AC type plasma display panel utilizes a memory function performed by wall charge on a dielectric layer covering the main electrodes on occasion of displaying. Namely, one pair of main electrodes is assigned to a scanning electrode and the address electrode is assigned to a data electrode for addressing by a line-sequential format for controlling the charging state of each cell corresponding to the display contents. After that, a sustaining voltage (Vs) having alternating polarities is applied to all pairs of the main electrodes simultaneously. Thus, a cell voltage (Vc) that is a sum of the wall voltage (Vw) and the applied voltage can exceeds a discharge starting voltage (Vt) only in a cell having a wall discharge above a predetermined quantity, so that the surface discharge occurs along the surface of the substrate for each application of the sustaining voltage. By shortening the period of applying the sustaining voltage, continuous displaying state can be observed.
Concerning a display of sequential images like a television, the addressing and the sustaining are repeated. In general, in order to prevent fluctuations of the display, preparation of addressing is performed for making the charged state uniform over the entire screen, after sustaining of an image and before addressing of the next image.
In the conventional addressing, the charged quantity of the wall charge (wall voltage) is altered by generating the addressing discharge in either the cell to be lighted or the cell not to be lighted. In the writing address format, the wall charge remaining in the display screen is erased as preparation for addressing, and the addressing discharge is generated only in the cell to be lighted, so that an adequate quantity of wall charge is generated in the cell. In the erasing address format, an adequate quantity of wall charge is generated in all cells as preparation of addressing, and then the addressing discharge is generated only in the cell not to be lighted, so that the wall charge in the relevant cell is erased.